Yes I'm an infant in the art of smoke. And it IS a cooking art just as much as "French" and Italian" cooking specialties are with their preps and nuances. Nobody will ever convince me otherwise. I'm learning, but this isn't my first dance with acquiring a skill and I see the complexities of relationships between the endless variables in this wonderful endeavor.
My new OK Joe Highland replaced an abused and rusted, bargain priced offset smoker (I had loaned it to my college age son for 7 years) which I had tried patching a few times. Now that old smoker lives again as parts cut, fabricated and installed in my Highland. But even during my first two smokes in my new Highland I had problems getting past the "stall" despite everything I knew to try at the time on a couple butts (vent changes, foil wrap, bigger fire and more charcoal).
Both times I ended up having to slide the butts into a 350 degree F. electric oven for an hour at 11:00 at night to bring that internal temp up to 205 F. I was cold, tired, my back hurt and in doing the slide of shame I felt somewhat a failure.
Yes, the sub-freezing outside temperatures may have had an influence on results. I now have a felt welding blanket cut to size and foil wrapped firebricks placed in both chambers that seem to have helped the smoker chilling problem very much. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Should the same situation arise again are there Magic Words I can say to myself to assuage the guilt I feel using a kitchen appliance in the final stage of creating delightfully delectable products of my labor? Am I alone?
Thanks. Don.
My new OK Joe Highland replaced an abused and rusted, bargain priced offset smoker (I had loaned it to my college age son for 7 years) which I had tried patching a few times. Now that old smoker lives again as parts cut, fabricated and installed in my Highland. But even during my first two smokes in my new Highland I had problems getting past the "stall" despite everything I knew to try at the time on a couple butts (vent changes, foil wrap, bigger fire and more charcoal).
Both times I ended up having to slide the butts into a 350 degree F. electric oven for an hour at 11:00 at night to bring that internal temp up to 205 F. I was cold, tired, my back hurt and in doing the slide of shame I felt somewhat a failure.
Yes, the sub-freezing outside temperatures may have had an influence on results. I now have a felt welding blanket cut to size and foil wrapped firebricks placed in both chambers that seem to have helped the smoker chilling problem very much. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Should the same situation arise again are there Magic Words I can say to myself to assuage the guilt I feel using a kitchen appliance in the final stage of creating delightfully delectable products of my labor? Am I alone?
Thanks. Don.
